THE WHIDBEY PATROL SQUADRON MEMORIAL IS DEDICATED TO ALL
UNITED STATES NAVY PERSONNEL WHO SERVED IN NAVY PATROL SQUADRONS BASED
AT NAS WHIDBEY ISLAND AND TO THE MANY
WHIDBEY AIRMEN WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN VP OPERATIONS. WE
HONOR THEM ALL

When the Whidbey Patrol Squadron Memorial committee first began to
consider the daunting task of creating a memorial in Oak Harbor,
Washington, one of their first concerns was the intended scope of the
memorial. Should it memorialize all the personnel in all the
U.S. Navy patrol squadrons? Or should it be more localized to
honor just those who served in patrol squadrons based at NAS Whidbey
Island? The committee envisioned a wall as part of the
memorial with the names of airmen who had died serving their country in
patrol squadron operations. It was decided that the memorial
should concentrate on those who served and those who died in NAS
Whidbey-based VP squadrons. Committee members began the
research necessary to gather all the names of those whose sacrifice
would be remembered on the wall. It was expected to be a huge
task since the names needed would date back to World War II, and there
would be large numbers of fatalities from that period alone.

It soon became apparent that there is no
central repository of the names of those who died in VP
operations. It was expected that the Naval Personnel Command
or the Naval Safety Center or the Naval Historical Center or the Naval
Archives would have that information on file and easily retrievable,
but such is not the case. Even the Naval Safety Center has no
records of aircraft mishaps that include the names of those who died.

Not only is there no central source of
information on those who died in VP operations, there is also no
reliable source of all the aircraft mishaps that led to those
fatalities. The memorial committee, which took on the name
“Whidbey Patrol Squadron Memorial” committee owing to their chosen
scope of the memorial, was faced with the realization that it was up to
the committee itself to generate the names of the airmen who should be
honored by the memorial. Thus began a time-consuming search
that continued for several years to create an accurate list of names
that would appear on the WPSM wall. To a man, the WPSM
committee members pledged that the memorial would only list the names
of deceased airmen if the committee could guarantee that it had
absolutely correct information including dates, ranks/rates and the
spelling of the names. This information was to be carved in
granite. Inaccuracies could not be permitted.

Before long, the WPSM committee realized
that the wider the scope of the research they were doing, the less
likely it would be that the final product would be
error-free. There was absolutely no way to identify all of
the VP fatalities over the sixty-plus years of Whidbey-based VP
operations, let alone doing it with any accuracy. In order to
ensure 100% accuracy, the committee was forced to narrow the scope of
its research to cover only P2V mishaps. They wanted to
include other aircraft types, and were encouraged by veterans of other
squadrons to include other aircraft types, but the inconsistencies of
the information available to the researchers made a larger scope
impossible to achieve.

The list of names on the Whidbey Patrol
Squadron Memorial wall only includes fatalities from P2V operations,
but the memorial itself is dedicated to all who served in the NAS
Whidbey Island VP community, and particularly to those who lost their
lives. The dedication statement above in blue on gold is
carved into the Memorial wall.

Among
Those Lost in P2V Operations

4
November 1948 – VP-1

LCDR
Albert B Hall, Jr

LCDR
Wilbur W Titsworth

LTjg
Edward T Swientek

ADC
James J Lytle

AD1
George L Cole, Jr

AL1
George E Egeter

AO1
T Vernon Rudd

AD2
John F Duval

AE2
John H Wood

27
November 1950 – VP-4

LTjg
Sylvester H Linn, Jr

ENS
George H Irelan

AL1
Malcomb B Farris

AD1
Frank Zitkovich

AOAN
Harold T Neely

18
December 1950 – VP-931

LT
Lalonde M Pinne

LTjg
Roy T Anderson

ENS
James F Morris

MIDN
George B Hogaboom

ALC
Milton E Berquist

ADC
Walter W Whitehead

AOU1
Edward G Lunn

AL2
Frederick J Sinclair

AT2
Robert C Stockton

AF3
Verl L Hancock

ATAN
James F Christiana

15 June
1951 – VP-2

LTjg
Ben W Sevier

2
January 1953 – VP-1

AD3
Harold R Canning

4
January 1954 – VP-2

LT
Jesse Beasley

LT
Fredrick T Prael

ENS
Stanley B Mulford

ENS
Paul D Morelli

ADC
Robert G Archbold

AL2
Rex A Claussen

AD2
James F Hand

AT2
Lloyd B Rensink

AT3
Bruce D Berger

AO3
Gordon Spicklemier

11 May
1959 – HATUPAC

LCDR
William F Wade

Ltjg
Edwin J Bruner

ADJ3
Harry A Hartwell

Ltjg
Hilton L Cutler, Jr

ENS
Vernon L Garner

ENS
Carl D Johnson

AD1
Jack H MacMillan

AM1
George F Robertson

AOC
Joseph E Foltz

11
January 1963 – VP-17

LT
William L Carter

LT
Paul W Dannell

LTjg
Richard T Healy

AD2
John A Cole

AD2
Russel S Feldmann

AT2
Merlin J Haas

AM3
Charles A Treat

August 1964 – VP-42

AN
Robert Davis

8
September 1964 – VP-42

LCDR
John C Thomas

ADR1
Deloss W Anderson, Jr

AE2
Weslie D Mewborn

AM1
Michael J Ulicsni

AO2
Donald F Marit

13
April 1966 – VP-1

ADR2
Randolph P Vedros

27
November 1964 – VP-2

LT L
Dennis Wilson

LCDR
Raymond H Walker

LTjg
Richard A Meyers

LTjg
Douglas M Smith

ADR2
Harold M Ley

ATN2
William A Laugesen

AO2
Howard G Brantley

ADR3
Bobby J Crum

AE3
Thomas J Gould

AXAN
Michael A McDaniel

AN
Joseph L Lyons

LT
William A Dotson (Obs)

14
December 1967 – VP-42

LCDR
Maynard L Howard

Ltjg
Kenneth C McCoy

Ltjg
Gary A Klessig

Ltjg
Peter S Stewart

ADR1
Earl D Rouse

AT1
Teddy L Wood

AE2
Dale A Armour

ATN2
Vito Muti

ADR3
Roy T Cole

AO3
James P Franklin

AXAN
Ray O Wadley

AE1
Billy H Mallams (Pass)

AN
Thomas D Edwards (Pass)

SP5
G W Lotze (Pass)

The Airmen's names are on panels that flank
the center panel facing the statue, benches
and the flag pole further west.

The
Whidbey Patrol Squadron
Memorial is sponsored by the Patrol Squadron Two
Association